16 This is what the Lord has said: Take your place looking out on the ways; make search for the old roads, saying, Where is the good way? and go in it that you may have rest for your souls. But they said, We will not go in it.
For my people have put me out of their memory, burning perfumes to that which is nothing; and because of this, I will put a cause of falling in their ways, even in the old roads, and will make them go on side-roads, in a way not lifted up;
Keep in mind the days of the past, give thought to the years of generations gone by: go to your father and he will make it clear to you, to the old men and they will give you the story.
But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets; let them give ear to what they say.
And at your back, when you are turning to the right hand or to the left, a voice will be sounding in your ears, saying, This is the way in which you are to go.
As for the word which you have said to us in the name of the Lord, we will not give ear to you.
To whom he said, This is the rest, give rest to him who is tired; and by this you may get new strength; but they would not give ear.
As, then, you took Christ Jesus the Lord, so go on in him,
Jesus said to them, For a little time longer the light will be among you; while you have the light go on walking in it, so that the dark may not overtake you: one walking in the dark has no knowledge of where he is going.
O family of Jacob, come, and let us go in the light of the Lord.
But this was the order I gave them, saying, Give ear to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people: go in all the way ordered by me, so that all may be well for you.
Say, O love of my soul, where you give food to your flock, and where you make them take their rest in the heat of the day; why have I to be as one wandering by the flocks of your friends? If you have not knowledge, O most beautiful among women, go on your way in the footsteps of the flock, and give your young goats food by the tents of the keepers.
Do not let your foot be without shoes, or your throat dry from need of water: but you said, There is no hope: no, for I have been a lover of strange gods, and after them I will go.
So that you may not be slow in heart, but may take as your example those to whom God has given their heritage, because of their faith and their long waiting.
What, then, may we say that Abraham, our father after the flesh, has got? For if Abraham got righteousness by works, he has reason for pride; but not before God. But what does it say in the holy Writings? And Abraham had faith in God, and it was put to his account as righteousness. Now, the reward is credited to him who does works, not as of grace but as a debt. But to him who without working has faith in him who gives righteousness to the evil-doer, his faith is put to his account as righteousness. As David says that there is a blessing on the man to whose account God puts righteousness without works, saying,
Now these were more noble than the Jews of Thessalonica, for they gave serious attention to the word, searching in the holy Writings every day, to see if these things were so.
If you had belief in Moses you would have belief in me; for his writings are about me. If you have no belief in his writings, how will you have belief in my words?
You make search in the holy Writings, in the belief that through them you get eternal life; and it is those Writings which give witness about me.
But how does it seem to you? A man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go and do work today in the vine-garden. And he said in answer, I will not: but later, changing his decision, he went. And he came to the second and said the same. And he made answer and said, I go, sir: and went not. Which of the two did his father's pleasure? They say, The first. Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, that tax-farmers and loose women are going into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you had no faith in him, but the tax-farmers and the loose women had faith in him: and you, when you saw it, did not even have regret for your sins, so as to have faith in him.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Jeremiah 6
Commentary on Jeremiah 6 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 6
In this chapter, as before, we have,
Jer 6:1-8
Here is
Jer 6:9-17
The heads of this paragraph are the very same with those of the last; for precept must be upon precept and line upon line.
Jer 6:18-30
Here,